Illaoi needs some changes (I think).

Now as a person who loves to play the champ I'm sad to see her be in such a bad state. But the problem is that she has too many glaring issues to work in the current system of the game.

From her only form of cc rooting her in place if she wishes to chase down a target (who will likely have a dash anyway) and being a strong but very short slow, from no keystone working to enforce her damage (Conqueror's damage being pointless as she gains no benefit from the true damage as she builds pen regardless, to aery and comet having too little of an impact and leaving extended trades without any consistency and grasp being a poor choice with all these aggressive all in top laner's that will just force you to stay in combat or die running away and Kleptomancy doesn't do anything for her late game as once she's full build that's it, and even if she gets some items a little faster he glaring issues still stand) Especially since she's forced to take domination with ravenous hunter as it's vial to her sustain.

To every single top laner basically having a away to destroy tentacles without them even having a chance to land a single hit (due to auto attack resets) and especially the bad spot her items are in at the moment (and trust me I've tried it all, bruiser, assassin, on hit, tank) but none seem to stick. and the other one being that because dot effects or rapid ticking attacks (Bami cinder, mundo W, Rumble Q, Darius Passive, Garen E, Singed Q etc.) literally chewing through her E timer going from 10 seconds to 5 or even 3, it gives you no time to even attempt to get the damage off on the spirit.

So here would be my suggestions, whether all or some of them are viable I wouldn't know.

First and foremost, make Illaoi's tentacles have 3 hits instead of 2, as I said everyone has an auto attack reset nowadays it seems, or just has too much range for you to punish going for them, but having them not be instantly destroyed with a quick auto and a reset while it is not even finished slamming down from Illaoi's W just hitting you, it makes it nearly impossible to get any trades off this way.

Second of all, make Illaoi's E root or stun the target if it is killed or they run away. I would believe the shock of having your soul slammed into your body would do a bit more than give you a small stagger, as she's the only Juggernaut to not have any hard cc in her kit (yorick's W can technically knock back, but at least his slow also speeds him up if they're hit with it, unlike Illaoi) Also due to the fact that she can't really utilize phage's effect from her blackcleaver or triforce is also an issue, while Darius can quickly q through a minion wave while chasing, Garen can E while chasing, Urgot has his Q slow and phage speedup. It just gives her some more potential to catch a target that's moving away as a Q and run isn't exactly an efficient way of chasing as Illaoi.

Third, make her ult effect her Q's cast speed, she is technically swinging a tentacles, so I would think it should be enraged as well, Illaoi is being empowered her after all (since she does glow with the buff from her ult) as well as making her E have a similar effect to poppy's W, in which only one instance of a spell can lower the timer of the E's existence, so that a simple sunfire rush makes it impossible to get any decent damage onto the spirit. So one tick from Darius passive will lower it, One tick of singed Q, I wouldn't mind something like Garen's E still ticking it down, just as long as it has a bit of a delay per tick, not just 2 ticks per second.

Forth, make the Spirit more rewarding if it is killed outside of the damage, as anyone knows all you have to do is stand next to the tentacle and side step the opposite way to avoid the damage every time. So either by making a similar enraged effect of just making it slam faster on a vessel maybe if you W a vessel it causes a one time enraged effect from the attracted tentacles or possibly just remove the hit indicator like the ult does if they have the vessel visual effect, making the target have to think more or react faster, punishing them better. Or even like the Yorick effect of Illaoi gets to move faster towards a target if they're a vessel, or given an extended W range or possibly armor shred, just something to make it feel impactful at least in the laning phase and dueling scene

Fifth, make the E's cast either faster or a longer range, to chase down a moving target you have to slow them with the E, but the speed is so slow that there is no chance you are gonna hit them if they are even half the length of the spell away, it just moves at too slow of a projectile speed to possibly hit anyone with even 1 movement speed buffing ability or item. While remove the ability to collide with units might be a bit too far, it would be a possible fix if the speed or length couldn't be altered.

And lastly, just a small change but one that can help out so much, make Illaoi's passive scale with CDR, with such an unreliable system of how they attach themselves to walls, with only a few spots being viable in the toplane, making her passive come of CD faster with items (as she'll almost always hit 30-40%) it just makes it a bit more managable when a poor tentacle is placed down and now it's stopped any decent spotted ones from being able to spawn till one is destroyed. If not that make them killable by Illaoi in some way or something so that they can be better managed, as if she is going to be reliant on setting up one place and fighting in it, making it a bit more beneficial would help a lot.

In the end all I want it Illaoi to be shown some love as it's been far too long since she's had a good quality of life change in forever. I just want her to be a bit more viable and rewarding for people like me who love her play style and champion in general. But until something changes to help her out in some way, she's just gonna get harder and harder to do well with, regardless of the hours put into her. As she's just too slow and easy to get away from, or counter with a single quick auto reset. I hope Riot will be able to do something as I'd hate to give up the champ all together. All I ask is that what I said gets taken into consideration, from a guy who loves his champ and wants to have it do well and be a bit more viable.

Thanks again everyone.